


Scaled Up

by cloverfield



Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: Apartment Life with Dragons, Fantasy Violence, Gen, Ginryuu is a Dragon, Implications of Future KuroFai, Kurogane Week, Kurogane is a Massive Nerd, Modern magic AU, Occasional swearing, Pre-Slash, References to Past KuroMeki, Sprites and Imps and Demons, Wards and Barriers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-24
Updated: 2015-08-24
Packaged: 2018-04-17 01:00:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4646445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloverfield/pseuds/cloverfield
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ginryuu is the Suwano Family Guardian. She also eats batteries, steals blankets, and generally makes a nuisance of herself. Kurogane wouldn't mind so much, if she'd just <i>quit sneaking out of the damn apartment.</i> Modern Magic AU, with there-if-you-squint hints at KuroFai; written for Kurogane Week 2015.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scaled Up

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Kurogane Week 2015, for the prompt Non-sword Ginryuu. I wrote this in a blur and it needs some serious polish, but I wasn't gonna miss the posting day!

_“And how is my little darling settling into their new home?”_

It was a predictable enough question that Kurogane breathed out a gusty sigh in a crackle of static across the speaker, juggling his mobile over to his shoulder so he could fish for his keys with one hand. The other was tangled up in the twisting handles of half a dozen canvas bags containing at least a paycheque worth of heavy-duty cleaning supplies. “Your ‘little darling’ is doing just fine, Dad, considering he’s twenty-four and a grown man.” He managed to find the right key and get it into the lock with only the minimum of scrabbling. “I told you- I know how to take care of myself. I moved out of home six years ago, or have you forgotten?”

A burst of laughter drummed across the line, tinny with distance and amusement. “ _Kiddo, I was talking about Gin-chan. But you’ll always be my little darling_.”

Kurogane flushed, shoving the door open when the lock finally clicked. “I’m taller than you, old man,” and it wasn’t really a snapped retort, even if he growled it a little bit. “And don’t call me darling. Anyway, Ginryuu is just fine,” he added dryly. “Ginryuu has taken over the lounge room, in fact, and I think she’s hoarding batteries again, seeing as I keep finding the back of the T.V. remote clawed open.” And the back of the couch scratched up to tatters, but it was second hand in the first place, so he wasn’t that worried about the upholstery. A lifetime growing up with a pet as irascible and scaly as their family guardian had inured Kurogane to most forms of claw-based destruction over the years, and provided she stayed away from his bookshelves –and his limited edition volumes of manga– he couldn’t give a damn what she did to the furniture he’d picked up for free.

His father snorted. “ _Doesn’t that sound familiar?_ _Don’t let her eat them, though. She’ll be burping up acid for days._ ”

Kurogane knew that already, having found a sizzling puddle of it eating into the kitchen linoleum yesterday. He’d promptly shoved everything remotely battery-operated into the top of the linen cupboard, next to the camphor moth-repellent, making Ginryuu sneeze helplessly when she tried to climb up and get at them. In theory she’d stop once she figured it out –most dragons, including the common household ones, were allergic to camphor and turps by-products– but even smearing VapoRub around the corners of the shelves so it made her claws greasy and reek of eucalypti fumes didn’t seem to be stopping her. (It was getting to the point of desperation now, considering he was down to three pairs of decent socks.)

“I _know_ , Dad. And I’ve already made sure I wired the windows shut and put baby-safe locks on the bathroom cupboards.” He slammed the door closed behind him with one foot as he made his way into the alcove, juggling bags and mobile and his heavy satchel once again so he could kick off his shoes, and caught the tail-end of another rush of laughter with the phone pressed against his ear. “I know how to dragon-proof a house, and an apartment isn’t much different.”

“ _Well, you can’t blame me for wanting to be sure, can you? You might be a grown man but you’re still our baby boy and we’re allowed to worry about you._ ”

“You mean _you’re_ allowed to worry about me. I know that _Mum_ knows I’m fine,” countered Kurogane, and didn’t bother to hide his exasperation as he crossed to the kitchen and heaved his shopping up and onto the bench. “You’re acting like I’ve moved to another country or something- I’m just on the other side of town, ya know. And it’s not like taking care of this place is gonna be hard; all I have to do is keep it clean and make sure the wards stay up.” There were benefits, to being the son of a barrier priestess; while Kurogane hadn’t inherited the bulk of his mother’s magic, he had her knack for raising and defending wards, which came in useful when jobs like this one came onto the market: _caretaker wanted for established apartment complex, accommodation and board included in pay, skill with warding a must._ It was exactly the kind of thing he needed since his last apartment building had been bought up from under him and scheduled to be demolished for a new multi-storey shopping centre. And so what if he had to clean the place up a bit? He wasn’t a stranger to a scrubbing brush- he’d cleaned the shrine at home from top to bottom every damn weekend growing up, and he’d made it shine from tiled roof to polished floorboards. Keeping an eye on a dozen self-contained units was probably the easiest thing he’d done since graduating university a year ago.

“ _Still_ ,” said his father, and there was just the tiniest thread of worry in his carefree voice. “ _It’s been a while since we’ve seen you around home, and I know you’ve been on your own a lot this past year since you broke up with Shizuka-kun.”_ Which they still weren’t talking about, because some things Kurogane liked to keep to himself, and the familiar ache of his not-quite-a-boyfriend moving on and moving away once university ended had been one of them. _“You could stand to give us a call more often than you do, Kiddo_.”

Which was true. Damn it. Admittedly he’d been occupied with other things –finding a new place to live, for one, and searching for a job for another, now that the employment market was starting to stagnate, which figured considering he’d only just got his damn teaching degree– but the old man wasn’t wrong. Once a month wasn’t good enough. “Yeah. I’ll try and make it more often,” he muttered, untangling himself from his mess of shopping bag straps and running his hand through his hair. One of the canvas bags slumped over, spilling out a can of shower cleaning foam to rattle across the bench and clatter to the floor noisily. “Shit.”

“ _What was that? You drop something, brat?_ ”

“Nah, just my shopping- something fell out of one of the bags.” And rolled under the fridge, apparently, considering that he couldn’t find the fucking thing when he crouched down on the kitchen floor. “The hell did it go?”

“ _Sounds like I should leave you to it, then_ ,” came the laughter on the line. “ _Have fun hunting down whatever it is you’ve lost, and give Gin-chan a good scratch behind the horns for me, alright?_ ”

“Alright,” grunted Kurogane, wedging his mobile between his ear and his shoulder as he got down on all fours and tried to squint under the bottom of the fridge. “And- and I’ll call next Sunday night. I wanna speak to Mum next time, too.”

“ _Sounds like a plan, Kiddo. Talk to you then. Love you_.” That voice was as warm as it ever was, and in spite of the linoleum crackling under his knees and the itch of his eyes straining to figure out whether he’d lost his can in the shadows between the back of the fridge and the kitchen wall, Kurogane felt his mouth twist into a smile.

“Yeah. Love you too, Dad.” Okay, so he was a grumpy bastard who didn’t do feelings. Didn’t mean he couldn’t say the truth, when it came down to it. “Talk to you then.” He shoved his mobile into the waistband of his jeans when the call ended, and got down as close as he could to the floor, cheek pressed to the ground. Reaching around beneath the humming refrigerator earned him a handful of dust, a brush against something oddly sticky –fucking _gross_ – and finally the cool aluminium of his missing shower spray. “Fucking ridiculous,” he grunted, heaving himself off the ground- and earning a reproachful look from the small, silvery dragon who’d slunk out of the hallway beyond the kitchen to chirrup at him inquisitively.

“Yeah, I’m talking to you,” muttered Kurogane, sitting back on his haunches as Ginryuu snaked closer and rubbed up against his knee, her talons clicking softly across the floor and her scales rasping soft against the denim of his jeans. Wiping his hand mostly clean of whatever it was he’d stuck his fingers in on the flat of his thigh, Kurogane reached out and tangled them gently in her wavy mane, scritching his nails against the bony plates at the bottom of her small, branching horns. “Where have you been all morning, huh? I haven’t seen you since you dropped those sprites on the carpet at breakfast.” He’d known Ginryuu was a mouser –the fieldmice around home had long memories and had learned the hard way about staying the hell away from the grounds of the Suwano Shrine– but it was unusual for her to go chasing dust sprites or the like when she had better things to do, like lie in the patch of sun that streamed through the lounge room window, or sharpen her claws on the legs of his battered dining table. “You snuck into the apartment next door again, didn’t you.”

It wasn’t a question, but Ginryuu rumbled an affirmative chirp all the same, uncoiling a little to rear up and latch onto his leg, kneading gently. “Yeah, I figured,” sighed Kurogane, wincing at the delicate prickling of her very sharp claws piercing through denim and into his knee. Unlike the rest of the apartments in the building, the ones on this floor were still vacant, so he’d been taking his time to clean them- and once she discovered them, the empty rooms next door were apparently Ginryuu’s new home away from home. He still had no idea how she was getting out of his apartment in the first place, since he locked the door whenever he went out, but then she’d always been like that; this scaly knot of mischief had a talent for wriggling into exactly the wrong place at the wrong time. “You’re a pain in the arse sometimes, you know that?” he muttered, fiercely resisting the urge to croon at her, but still giving a good scratch all the same. “Yes you are. A silver, shiny pain in the arse.”

Okay, so maybe he was crooning a little. What of it.

“ _Hrrmm?_ ” chirred Ginryuu, butting her head into his hand eagerly. She twisted her head this way and that, her gleaming eyes slitting in pleasure, cut down to the merest sliver of ruby as Kurogane dragged his fingernails back against her slippery scales.

“Don’t play cute with me. I know you’ve been snooping around, even when I told you to stay here and guard the apartment.” Though if there were enough sprites flitting about the place that she could actually catch them, he probably should check the warding on the apartment next door. All the rooms on this floor shared the same venting system, and if there were spirits sneaking in through the vents, it made sense that they were probably coming from the one place left for him to clean.

“Alright,” said Kurogane firmly, moving to stand with a faint groan. “Back to cleaning it is. Are you coming with, or are you going to pretend innocence, feign sleep until I’m gone and then follow me anyway?” Ginryuu, who had rumbled in displeasure when Kurogane left off scratching her, eyed him balefully as if to say _what do you think?_ The tip of her tongue flicked out in disdain. Kurogane sighed. “Yeah, I figured.”

She was a heavy thing, as small as she was –dragon bone far denser than human bone could ever hope to be and every one of her coils rippling with muscle beneath their shimmering scales– but it was easy for Kurogane to scoop her up one-handed all the same, and she didn’t fight at all when he draped her across his shoulders like a scarf. It had always been her favourite way to ride around when he was younger, and even if his shoulders were broad enough now that she didn’t need to loop her coils around his neck or risk them dragging on the floor, she still purred and nuzzled her face up against his cheek like she always had, scales rasping softly and her rumbling purrs thrumming through his chest. “Suck up,” he muttered, and earned himself a chiding nip on the ear for his trouble. “I’m only taking you with me because you’re less trouble if I know where you are. And no eating the cleaning stuff, okay? I’m not making another trip down to the supermarket today.”

* * *

Several hours later, he was glad for her company.

The afternoon sun was well below its zenith, the sunlight spilling in through the bare windows tracking across the room in slatted bars of orange light that striped the floorboards with brightness, and the wood creaked warningly beneath Ginryuu’s weight as she rocketed across the floor, chasing the last of the sprites that fled her eager yowling. And not just dust sprites, either; he’d banished three mould imps large enough to pose an actual threat to human health from the bathroom drain with bleach and blessed salt, and Ginryuu had promptly torn their oozing bodies to spore-y, splatter-y shreds across the tiles, growling so deeply between her teeth Kurogane had felt it in his gut.

The building had not been empty for long enough that mere neglect of the wards would have let such disgusting little critters take root in this apartment, and even if it was the only set of rooms on the floor to have a fireplace with requisite chimney –and a larger-than-average lounge and kitchen area for the price of a sacrificed secondary bedroom– it did not explain the proliferation of soot sprites that exploded outwards from the grate when he moved to scrub it clean. The other rooms had needed cleaning, yeah; dusty and grimy, with a want for an airing and for the refreshing magic of renewed wards to surge through them and bring life back to empty space. But they hadn’t been _dirty_ , not like this, and it made the hair on the back of Kurogane’s neck stand up.

He wasn’t a clean freak, like his cousin (-‘s cousin’s _cousin_ , technically, if you took into account his tangled family tree) Kimihiro; that kid would turn white if you wore muddy shoes past the front door, and god forbid you ever got gunk under your fingernails. But Kurogane had, much to his father’s chagrin, inherited his mother’s distaste for unkempt living space, and there was just something skin-crawling about seeing so many filthy little sprites swarming inside a perfectly empty apartment in reasonably good repair. No wonder he kept finding the damn things next door– they were probably creeping through the vents! Still, even if _he_ wasn’t enjoying himself scrubbing away, Ginryuu was having a fucking ball; she’d been chirping non-stop ever since she dug out the nest of dust sprites from the linen cupboard, and watching her roll across the floor in twisting loops and coils as her cleansing aura sparked and crackled off her scales was reason enough to have brought her with him besides.

Dragons were cleanly and fastidious by nature– even the small, nigh-domesticated house ones. Especially then; it wasn’t something you’d discourage in a household guardian after all. Between her teeth and claws and the bright, clean waves of purifying magic that glittered off her silvery hide, there wouldn’t be a place for any sprite or imp or minor filth daemon to hide.

So at around four o’clock in the afternoon, Kurogane finally lifted his head from the ward sigil he’d been carefully tracing with a stick of sacred incense into the appropriate space in the kitchen floor –in the corner of the room, furthest from the sink and possible water damage, and with a indented recess for a half-thickness tile to slot neatly over the top to protect it further– to rock back on his haunches and survey the now-clean space with something like satisfaction. Yeah, he still had to vacuum the floorboards too; all those dust sprites that met their ignoble end on razor-sharp claws would have left a bit of grit behind, and Ginryuu shed fine, silvery hair from her mane when she was excited, but whatever. It looked pretty decent now, and certainly enough to keep the landlord satisfied until the next tenant moved in.

“Right,” said Kurogane, standing up straight with a groan and feeling his spine pop and crackle back into place with a vengeance for being hunched over for so long. “We should be good for today. I wanna check the main building wards tomorrow, but this-” and here he tapped with his foot the tiled floor where his brand new sigil sat snug beneath the tiles, “-should keep the place in good shape until then.” Ginryuu chirped at him from somewhere in the lounge room, sounding as smug as Kurogane felt, and she’d worked just as hard as he had today, so he didn’t begrudge her chittering away at him while he got out the vacuum and ran it quickly around the floor. He even let her play with the cord while he was packing up the rest of his cleaning supplies, and when she slithered up his leg to wind her way up to his shoulders once more, her claws tiny pinpricks of sharpness all up his spine, he only muttered under his breath instead of chewing her out for it.

“Good work today, Gin-chan,” he murmured, scratching her behind one gently flicking ear. (He was allowed to call his pet dragon cutesy names when no one was around to hear, okay?)

“ _Hrrrm~!”_ she purred, and the tip of her nose was a warm, scaly kiss pressed against his cheekbone. Kurogane was in such a good mood, in fact, he didn’t even mind her playing with his lone earring, catching the cool metal carefully between the very tips of her incredibly sharp teeth and tugging oh-so-gently as he gathered up everything and headed out the door, humming an absentminded snatch of an old house-keeping tune his mother used to sing to herself while she tended to the bonsai back at the shrine.

So caught up was he in the tune he was humming and the faint tug of Ginryuu mouthing his earring, as well as juggling a bucket of cleaning supplies and his heavy-duty vacuum, that Kurogane nearly missed the skinny, bewildered blonde staring at him from just across the hall until he nearly tripped over him.

“The hell?” snapped Kurogane, swallowing back a yelp as a startled Ginryuu bit him on the earlobe with needling teeth. “Who are you supposed to be?”

“Um,” said the man, tall and fair and clearly foreign, wearing jeans and a blue shirt so faded it was almost white, “the new tenant? Ichihara-san did… did let you know I was coming tonight, right?” He held up a set of keys with one hand, jingling a little on their black cat keychain.

Realising somewhat guiltily he had not, in fact, checked his email since yesterday morning, Kurogane just scowled. “Whatever. You for number twelve?”

“Yes?” said the man, still bewildered, and blue eyes were not anywhere close to watching Kurogane’s face; were, in fact, entirely focused on Ginryuu’s gleaming coils and shining teeth and the small, warm trickle of blood Kurogane could feel oozing wetly down his neck. “Uh. Your- your ear seems to be… bleeding?”

“Funny that, considering you just made my dragon bite me,” was Kurogane’s quick retort, and never mind that it was technically his own fault for being spooked in the first place. So much for the keen warrior senses he’d apparently inherited from his father. “’s got sharp teeth.” He could still feel the hoop through his earlobe, so at least she hadn’t torn the whole thing out. Still stung like a bitch, though. “You gonna tell me your name, stranger, or am I supposed to guess?”

“Fai,” said his new neighbour, the word tripping quickly off his tongue. The sound had magic in it, the kind of magic that whispered of balmy midsummer breezes and the breath of snow before the blizzard in perfect, breathless contradiction– Kurogane didn’t need to be powerful to feel that much. Considering the edge of his aura prickled up against Kurogane’s own even from across the hallway –impressive, if you cared about that sort of thing– he was probably a witch or whatever title foreigners called their magic-born. “Fai Fluorite.” He held out a hand for Kurogane to shake, wilting slightly when Kurogane didn’t reach out to take it.

“Nothing personal,” Kurogane muttered. “I’ve just spent my afternoon elbow deep in bleach and cleaner. You probably don’t wanna touch my hands right now.”

“Oh. Um, thank you for cleaning out my apartment?” Fai smiled then, the expression so completely charming that if Kurogane had been a fifteen year old schoolgirl (or school _boy_ , for that matter), he probably would have swooned over it. But he wasn’t –thank fuck– and he didn’t, just scowled some more. The smile didn’t fade, even if a little of that cheerful light in blue eyes seemed to darken into something else entirely.

“Kurogane,” was what he said, then, followed by “Just doing my job,” and a curious chitter from Ginryuu, her long skinny neck craning forward so she might eye the man before them with wary red eyes.

“Well, I appreciate it all the same. And this lovely lady perched on your shoulder would be…?” began Fai, trailing off into a different kind of smile altogether, one with a wry edge, when Kurogane made a faint noise of approval in spite of himself. Not many could look at Ginryuu and know she was a lady, first time right.

“Ginryuu,” said Kurogane shortly, but not harshly, and didn’t move to put distance between them when Fai stepped closer, offering up his knuckles for Ginryuu flick her tongue out in inspection of. There were old tales about people who offered their hands incautiously to dragons, no matter how friendly, and they all made reference to missing fingers. “We live in number eleven. I’m the new caretaker,” he added, as Ginryuu nuzzled her snout gently against the back of Fai’s hand, encouraging him to turn it over. In his palm, there appeared suddenly a small sweet; candied adzuki, from the smell of it, and Ginryuu purred in absolute happiness as she quickly snuffled it up. “Hey. She could be on a diet, you know.” She technically _was_ , but Kurogane didn’t feel like mentioning it mostly forbade batteries and household electronics.

“Sorry,” said Fai, sounding not sorry at all. “She’s so beautiful, I couldn’t help myself.”

“Whatever,” he grumbled, and the sound of Ginryuu crunching up shards of candy right next to his ear was cut through by a rumbling purr he could feel all the way through his chest. “She’s gonna want sweets every time she sees you now, you know.”

“And will I be seeing Lady Ginryuu a lot, then?” laughed Fai, the look on his face turning sly in ways Kurogane didn’t quite understand as he carefully reached out to stroke Ginryuu’s horns. His hands were pale and skinny, with long clever fingers.

“We live next door,” said Kurogane flatly. “We’ll probably run into each other.” And in the spirit of full disclosure, he added “Also, she’s been using your apartment as a flophouse for the past couple of days. I can’t figure out how she keeps getting out –I think she’s sneaking through the vents– but don’t be surprised if you wake up with her curled up at the foot of your bed or rummaging around in your kitchen drawers.”

Fai’s eyes widened. (They really were shockingly blue.) “Is that likely? I dabble in alchemy– she could get sick if she tries to eat some of my tinctures or their ingredients.” Considering Ginryuu could eat batteries and hiccup up sticky puddles of acid with no ill effects afterwards, Kurogane personally thought she’d be fine. There wasn’t much that could harm a dragon, even a gluttonous one with a tendency for biting off more than she could chew.

“Lock your cupboards,” was what he said though, because knowing his luck he’d come home one day to find her rolling around on the floor and coloured purple or grown to twice her size from guzzling down potions. “And knock on my door or something if she gets in.”

“Right,” said Fai, still stroking Ginryuu’s horns, and for a moment they stared at each other. Maybe there was something Kurogane was supposed to say at this point, but he was at a loss for what. “I should… I should start moving my things in, I guess,” started Fai slowly, fingers curling just a little into the silky mass of Ginryuu’s mane before lifting away completely. “Before it gets dark. My apologies in advance for the noise.”

Kurogane nodded, shrugging a little so that his scaly passenger got the hint and curled back around his shoulders in a lazy coil. “Alright. Good luck.” He turned away then, but something –the last dregs of his manners, maybe– made him call back even as he walked off. “Come get me if you need a hand.” The way Ginryuu was purring in his ear the whole way back to his apartment suggested it had been the right thing to do.

* * *

Despite Fai’s warning, Kurogane heard barely any noise from the rooms next door as his new neighbour commenced moving in, just the occasional soft thump and once something that almost sounded like bells ringing. By the time he’d settled down for his evening meal –grilled fish, vegetables and rice; he was a competent cook, if not particularly creative– what little noise there was echoing through the vent set into the brick walls separating them had faded to nothing but the background presence of another person living in close quarters, barely audible over the re-runs of a cheesy samurai drama that Kurogane had been a fan of since he was a boy playing on TV. And once he was finished eating –and once Ginryuu had realised that the pleading eye trick was not going to get her any of his salmon– he washed his meagre dishes, tidied the kitchen and lounge room and then sat down heavily on his low couch with a grunt. Ginryuu immediately tumbled into his lap, springing up from the ground and leaping off the coffee table to clamber across the couch and demand his attention by means of kneading his thighs with prickling claws.

“Ow. You do this on purpose, don’t you?” muttered Kurogane, lifting her up and wedging a cushion beneath her so that sharp talons pierced sturdy cotton, and not the considerably more likely to bleed flesh of his leg. Especially since he’d thrown his clothes for the day in the wash basket as soon as he took a shower to scrub away an apartment’s worth of accumulated grime, and the thin cloth of his pyjama pants held up to the piercing sharpness of her talons in much the same way the couch-covers did, i.e. not at all. Ginryuu, currently nibbling daintily on the edges of something black and plastic looking, made a happy rumbling noise in her throat– one that immediately turned into a warning growl when Kurogane snatched his _mobile phone_ from her teeth. “Hey! How did you-?!”

Frowning down at the sulking coil of scales scowling up at him (seriously, if dragons could pout, she’d be doing a good job of it right now) Kurogane rubbed his mobile clean on the couch-cover, grateful not for the last time that the heavy-duty case he’d bought for it could apparently stand up to being delicately chewed on by very sharp teeth. Ginryuu had probably snuffled it up from the pockets of his jeans while he was in the shower, which meant that: one, he had to keep the bathroom door closed in future, and two, he also needed to clear out his pockets before discarding his clothes for the wash else he would be looking for a replacement sooner rather than later.

“Sometimes I think you’re more trouble than you’re worth,” he grumbled, but Ginryuu merely grinned toothily, mouth lolling open and her teeth on shining, sharp display. “And don’t go smiling at me like that, either. You know you’re in trouble.” He didn’t shove her off his lap, though, and when his phone buzzed in his hand, giving him a start, she made that _snrk-snrk-snrk-sss_ sound that meant she was laughing. “Oh, shut up.”

**Doumeki: i think i met ur cousin 2day**

Kurogane sighed.

 _Which one?_ He typed, fingers tapping carefully across the touch screen. _You know I have like a dozen._ Tomoyo sprang to mind, but then that may have been because he was thinking about how much she teased him about how funny it looked when he texted, his phone chunky and clumsy in his massive hands.

**Doumeki: skinny kid, yells a lot. clean freak. wouldn’t share his lunch. pretty eyes tho**

That was probably Kimihiro, especially the clean freak bit. _Why are you telling me this? I don’t care._ He really didn’t. Jealousy wasn’t something he did, and the last time he and Doumeki had been anything like close was months ago. If he wanted to brave the spitfire that was the flailing bundle of noodles masquerading as Watanuki Kimihiro, distant relative on his mother’s side of the family, then he could go for it.

**Doumeki: thats cold man. ur always so grumpy when ur not getting laid**

_Fuck you_. Still, having Doumeki on the line could actually be useful right about now. _Hey, what do you know about mould imps? Found some today cleaning._ He scratched idly at Ginryuu’s horns while he watched the little ‘…’ that meant Doumeki was typing. It was helpful, having a sort-of-ex who knew more shit about magic than he did, sometimes, even if he did have to put up with random texts at odd hours. And constant snapchats of food.

**Doumeki: thats bad. usually a symptom of bigger problms. if uve got imps then ur wards might b failing at root magic lvl. u redid sigils yeah? room wards handle mst sprites but imps r 2 much for minor warding. chk building basement for main ward sigil & patch it if u have 2. could be water damage or sumthing, imps usually only show up when neglect factor or wards old**

Kurogane frowned. Okay, he knew imps weren’t usually found in new buildings, especially ones with wards as strong as this one, and yeah, he could probably handle getting rid of them on his own, but if the main wards for the building were damaged that might be more trouble than he could handle. Imps were usually the first sign of a major infestation; unlike sprites, which spawned from everyday dust and grit and were just basically annoying, imps were often the precursor to worse things getting through. And if the building main wards were fizzing out, _that_ explained why he’d had to keep redoing the minor ones in every room he’d cleaned so far– all the minor wards fed from the major building arcana, so if without it, things would start getting pretty ugly pretty quick.

“No wonder that witch put the ad out for a caretaker with warding ability,” Kurogane muttered, mostly to himself.

**Doumeki: do u want me 2 get my grandpa? u might need a full building cleanse if u can’t patch main sigil**

Another reason knowing Doumeki was useful; Doumeki Haruka was a priest of a shrine that specialised in exorcisms, and if things were as bad as Kurogane was starting to think they might be, he’d need more help that what his limited abilities when it came to wards could handle. _Don’t wake the old man up. I’ll check it in the morning. If it’s bad, I’ll call._ Ginryuu rumbled at him a little then, nudging the phone with her snout and fixing him with a sharp look. _Thanks,_ Kurogane added, after a moment.

**Doumeki: s cool. lemme kno if its bad yeah. take blessd salt ur mum gave u. that shits powerful; gramps always says ur mums is best in tokyo**

That, Kurogane already knew, considering how many people made the pilgrimage to the Suwano Shrine to get it. He’d need sacred incense, too, and probably some of the _o-miki_ his mother had given him from home to bless the corners of the foundations and ward against structural damage. Assuming, of course, Ginryuu hadn’t gotten into the cask and drunk it all. Again. _Will do. Now go to bed and quit bothering me._

**Doumeki: ill go 2 bed when i want 2 :P u bettr not stay up watchin anime again. give gin-chan scritch for me k**

_Shut up. Night._

“Don’t you look at me like that.” His phone bounced when it hit the other side of the couch, tumbling face down on the cushions, and Ginryuu was still giving him that same snaky grin as before. “You wanna sleep on the balcony?” It was a pretty weak threat and they both knew it, but Ginryuu still rolled over and showed her belly all the same, wriggling around until Kurogane gave in and scraped his fingernails down the milky scales of her underside to make her purr. He let his thoughts drift as he scratched her, the rhythmic motion soothing. He’d go down to the basement in the morning. If the main ward for the building was damaged beyond his abilities to repair it –he knew a bit about ward maintenance, yeah, but he wasn’t a priest by any means, and his mother would probably slap him upside the head if he got in too deep trying to fix something he couldn’t– he’d call for back up. And then he’d call Ichihara herself and give the damn witch what-for, renting out an apartment block with sub-par wards!

“ _Hrrmm?_ ” Without meaning to Kurogane had stopped scratching, and Ginryuu was eyeing him warily. She almost looked… worried, which was something considering she had a muzzle and a whole lot of teeth on display, not to mention no real eyebrows to speak of; maybe dragons weren’t the best at emoting, but he’d always been able to see what she meant just by watching the light that flickered in those red eyes, and he’d never had trouble understanding what Ginryuu was trying to say to him.

“Yeah, I know,” he muttered, bringing up one hand to mess up her mane and stroke it flat again, fine silvery fur locks tangling between his fingers. “I don’t like it either.” He’d seen what could happen when wards fell, or barriers warped; it wasn’t pretty. His mother poured her magical skill into maintaining the wards around the shrine and helping others do the same with the barriers built into the foundations of their homes, and more than once as a child he’d seen her called away to do an emergency fix on a sigil shattered by an earthquake or tainted by something more sinister; reconsecration of defiled ground –where an innocent had died through violent means, or daemon blood had been spilled– was something she specialised in. With salt and _sake_ and sacred blade she’d poured all the power she had into making people safe again, and even if Kurogane only had a fraction of her strength and skill, he’d be damned if he didn’t try to do the same here. Hopefully before something direr came through than a handful of imps. Imps might make people sick, yeah, and could be deadly to those already unwell– but there were worse things that lurked in the veil between the human world and the daemon world, and if something like _that_ came through…

The careful, forceful press of Ginryuu’s teeth against the inside of his wrist drew Kurogane back from his thoughts and into the present once more, her eyes red and sharp where they rested on his face and the crackling aura that hummed through her scales clean and bright. She tugged gently on his wrist, and though it would be quite simple for her to bite his hand clean off, Kurogane felt nothing like danger in the gentle pressure that closed around his skin. Dragons were powerful and dangerous and destructive, ancient beings beyond the understanding of man, but they did not destroy without cause; they protected what they called their own. They’d only been in the apartment for a few days, but already it felt like home, and Kurogane knew Ginryuu would protect everyone in the entire building, if he asked it of her.

“Yeah, I know,” he murmured, and when Ginryuu let his hand go, he drew his fingers through her mane once more. “Worrying about it too much now won’t do anything– and I’m not gonna go down to try and fix whatever’s up with the wards in the damn dark. Better to wait for the morning and think about it then.” Besides, if all else failed, he could probably grab Fai to give him a hand. Even if he was completely ignorant about wards and how to patch them, blondie had enough raw power crackling through his aura that Kurogane could probably channel some of it into an emergency seal if he needed to before calling in the big guns.

“Alright,” said Kurogane firmly, mostly to himself, but Ginryuu cocked her head at him all the same. “Bed time. You coming or what?” The happy little chirr she made as he scooped her up, her scales warm and dry against bare skin as Kurogane laid her across his shoulders was familiar and homely; she’d been making that same sound as long as he could remember, and he’d always felt safe as a kid with Ginryuu coiled up at the end of his futon. And while he was a grown man now and certainly more than capable of kicking the arse of anything he found even mildly threatening –years of kenjutsu and ju jutsu training and the hands of his father had taken care of that, not to mention everything his mother had drilled into him about how to use defensive wards to protect himself when under attack– it was still nice to have her around.

Kurogane kept Ginryuu draped around his shoulders as he turned off the lights, checked the locks and brushed his teeth, her rumbling purr shivering down his spine to keep him warm, and dropped her on top of the mattress before getting under the covers. He’d probably wake up with her curled up under the covers with him and pressed against his back again, scale marks rubbed into his skin, but honestly he couldn’t say he minded; there were worse ways to wake up, and even if Ginryuu _was_ a shameless blanket thief, she was still his dragon, and he never felt as peaceful as he did with her beside him.

* * *

The noise that woke him in the middle of the night was something he felt more than heard, a stinging echo that jolted through his bones and buzzed in his teeth, making Kurogane jolt upright and gasp for breath in a tangled mess of sheets, his arms flailing and his breath fogging out in white clouds as sweat beaded on his face. The room was so cold it stung bare skin, raised the hair on his arms and made him shudder– and the chilly, bare space of the mattress beside him where Ginryuu had once been forced him to wakefulness like a shock of water to the face.

“The wards…” There was a sore and aching feeling where before the slow, background hum of the building wards had been, like the raw and empty socket of a suddenly pulled tooth; without the familiar, safe cocoon of magic that had been poured into the very concrete of the building’s foundations, all of Kurogane’s esoteric senses were alert and screaming that something was very, very wrong. And Ginryuu was missing.

He cursed under his breath, a steady stream of hot air in his suddenly freezing bedroom, and threw the covers off with a jerk as he rolled out of bed and slammed his hand down on the touch-base of his lamp. Grabbing the first shirt from the pile of clean washing stacked neatly atop his dresser, Kurogane dragged it over his head without care for what it was, already scrambling to grab his boots from the closet and the tool bag he kept his warding gear in. Incense, wax, candles; cask of _o-miki_ , jar of blessed salt, silver-bladed dagger taken from the shrine at home– he’d need all of it if the main sigil in the basement had blown out. “ _Shit_. Ginryuu, where the _hell_ are you?”

The sinking dread that he refused to acknowledge –where was his dragon? _Where the hell was his dragon?_ – was a lead weight in his belly as he grabbed the heavy duty torch from the linen cupboard, shoving it under one arm as he jammed his feet into his boots, stumbling for the door in a panic with only the faint light of the bedroom lamp to see by; he barely remembered to grab his master keyring before the front door slammed shut behind him with an echoing bang. “Ginryuu!” It was a half breathless shout, a huff of hot air that clouded in front of his face, and it echoed down the dark and empty corridor without care for the late hour. So what if it was two in the morning- his dragon was missing! “ _Ginryuu!_ ”

_“Kurogane-san!”_

A sudden flash of light cut across his eyes and Kurogane hissed, throwing up an arm to shield his face from the glare. “The hell?” Fai was stalking down the hall, wrapped in silk pyjamas with a velvety dressing gown billowing out around him and a _fucking candelabra_ in one hand, old blackened iron blazing with cool blue-white flames; before Kurogane’s eyes the flames dimmed from incandescent bonfire to just enough to see by, strange shadows leaping across the walls and worried face of the man standing before him.

“I felt the wards go down,” he said breathlessly, and his words were fogging too, warm breath steaming in the freezing corridor. “What’s going on?”

“Fucked if I know,” growled Kurogane, hefting up his tool bag. “But I’m gonna find out. Ginryuu’s missing– she’s probably gone straight for whatever broke them. I’m gonna find my dragon and fix the wards, and gods help anything that gets in my way.”

“I’m coming too.” Blue eyes were hard and hot, like fire behind glass, and the heavy iron candelabra in Fai’s hand flared up again, flames leaping and twisting. The look on his face suggested he was not going to be persuaded otherwise, which was just fine by Kurogane. Fire was a purifier too, and the mood he was in right now, he’d be more than happy to watch something burn if Fai set it aflame.

“Fine. Come on,” snapped Kurogane, jerking his head towards the stairwell; ice crunched under his boots as he ran for it, the bright halo of Fai’s candelabra following in his shadow, long legs keeping up easily with Kurogane’s stomping strides. They took the stairs quickly, the handrails cold and wet with frost as they spiralled down towards the basement, and the eerie quiet rang with the hollow thumping of his boots and Fai’s sneakers. No one else in the building was awake, even with all the noise, and that worried him almost as much as the sudden cold snap that dripped icicles from the ceiling.

“Something’s sucking all the life energy from the grounds,” huffed Fai, in response to a question Kurogane didn’t ask. “That’s why it’s so cold. The structure of your wards are different from the barrier magic I’m used to, but it’s much the same in purpose; whatever has broken the spell here hasn’t just shattered it– they’re absorbing all the power behind it.” That sounded like nothing good, and Fai’s face was grim when Kurogane shot a glance over his own shoulder, those bright blue eyes glowing in a way that had nothing to do with the light of his candelabra. “No one else woke when the barrier went down because they’re not magically sensitive like the two of us; I’d say the psychic shockwave knocked them all out cold.”

Something hot and ugly twisted in Kurogane’s gut. There were _kids_ in this building: a handful of families with pre-schoolers on the first floor, and a young couple with a newborn on the third. He’d be damned if he was gonna let anything hurt any of them.

“Are you aware you’re growling under your breath?” said Fai suddenly, sounding far too cheerful for the situation they were in. Kurogane ignored him –what kind of stupid comment was _that_ supposed to be, and also he totally wasn’t– and focused instead on the dizzying rush of the stairs beneath their feet as they barrelled down towards the basement level. It was getting colder the further they went, and harder to breathe; the air tasted thick and bitter with something strange that clung to the inside of his teeth and oozed across his tongue. It made him want to spit, to wash his mouth out with water and salt and soap to make it clean again.

“Damn it,” whispered Fai. The light of his candelabra had turned a sickly green, guttering and swaying in a breeze Kurogane couldn’t feel. “We might be in a lot of trouble here.”

Fear spiked into his belly; met anger, and twisted into something sharp and cold. _Green fire. Daemon light_. “Can you fight?” asked Kurogane, jumping down the last three steps with a heavy _whump_ of boots on concrete, keys already jingling in his hand as he ran for the basement door. Adrenaline buzzed in his blood, his pulse ringing in his ears.

“I’m going to have to,” said Fai briskly. “Whatever is waiting for us in that basement isn’t anything good, and I’m not inclined to start apartment hunting again after it brings this building down around our ears.” He blew out the flickering green flames with a short, harsh breath that plunged them both into darkness. Before Kurogane could even start to protest, Fai dropped his candelabra onto the concrete steps with a careless, ringing _clanggg-!_ and held up his hands, the plush velvet sleeves of his dressing gown shoved back to his elbows and his hands bursting into cold white flames that shimmered with a sizzling aurora of power.

“Okay,” said Kurogane begrudgingly, dragging in a deep breath. “That… that’ll work.” It wasn’t any magic he knew, but it felt clean and _right_ in a way the sickening power oozing out from the basement door didn’t. He jammed the key in the lock and stepped back, his tool bag heavy in his spare hand and the silver dagger his mother had blessed gripped tight in his other, its rippling edge glowing with his mother’s own power. He might not be able to set his hands on fire like _some_ people, but he had a weapon and he damn well knew how to use it.

Taking a step back, Kurogane lunged forward, boot colliding with reinforced wood; once, twice and then something cracked, the door crashing open with a shuddering _bang_ and shadows exploding outwards in a frozen rush that crashed over them like a wave, only the glow of his dagger and Fai’s flames keeping them from being swallowed whole. With the shadows came sound: a crackling shriek of shattering ice, and a ringing scream that Kurogane felt in his bones, resounding clean through him like the toll of a bell struck– the battle-cry of a dragon in all her fury.

“ _Ginryuu-!_ ” Kurogane roared into the darkness, and in the darkness Ginryuu roared back.

Shadows roiled around him like a tide, and Kurogane struggled forward into the cold– it felt like wading through icy water, the drowning current wrapping around his arms and legs and trying to force him to a standstill. But he kept going –like hell he was gonna stop _now_ , not when Ginryuu needed him– and behind him he could hear Fai chanting, his voice rising and falling in a pattern like birdsong and foreign magic prickling along his senses like static. Kurogane could barely see, his footsteps falling by instinct more than sight, and when the sudden bright flashfire of Fai’s spell thundered past him, he had to throw his arms over his face or be blinded by the flames.

Blue-white fire howled around him in a flaming maelstrom that devoured twisting shadows and chased heat back into Kurogane’s bones– but where it touched his skin it did not burn, those hungry teeth passing harmless through him even as he heard Fai’s voice rise to a shout and saw his spell burst into fading cinders. “Go!” he cried, and Kurogane was already moving. The concrete beneath his boots was noisome with filth, puddles of melting ice pooling in the sigils carved into the basement floor, and seeing the towering mess of snaking coils seething in its central rings was proof enough something had burst through from beyond the veil even without the sight of Ginryuu atop it, a tiny flash of silver lost in the roiling blackness.

Her scales were sparking, glowing with the crackling aura of her power as it snapped and burst in tiny bolts of lightning that scorched everything it touched, and her teeth and claws flashed like silver daggers as she ripped and tore at the shrieking thing that writhed inside the boundaries of the ward-carvings, great chunks of meaty sludge splatting to the ground to crumble into dust with every bite. But where that dust fell it become imps and sprites and tiny spirits Kurogane had no name for, and the crawling mess that scattered from the flailing daemon in the ward moved towards the door in a creeping carpet that crunched beneath Kurogane’s boots as he ran right over the top of it.

“I’ll take care of the crawlers!” shouted Fai, and his voice sounded like it was coming from the bottom of a well. “You help the lady!”

“Ginryuu!” The name tore from his throat, burning as it passed his teeth; even if Kurogane had meant to bite it back, he _couldn’t_ , his dragon’s name bursting out from somewhere deep in his chest. In his hand, his mother’s dagger burned with silver light, and shoved his tool bag under his arm and ripped the cask of _o-miki_ from its depths, jamming the tip of the dagger into the slats to crack it open. _Sake_ bubbled up around the blade, hissing out in a foaming rush that lit up the symbols carved into the blade, and where it dripped to the ground it burned through the churning mess of sprites and imps like acid on paper. Jamming the hilt of his dagger in his mouth, teeth clamping down on the wood, Kurogane grabbed his jar of salt and dropped his bag, crushing it into the cask so that the glass cracked and salt poured through the broken glass.

Beneath his fingers, the sacred liquid bubbled and grew hot, magic steaming through wood and shards of glass. It didn’t matter that his fingers were cut and bleeding, not when white light began to pour through them, and Kurogane felt something wordless and furious claw up his throat as Ginryuu screamed, the cask flying from his grip even before he knew he was going to throw it.

The shuddering cask shattered open at the peak of its flight, sake and salt raining down across the basement in a shower of froth and scintillating magic, and before his eyes Ginryuu _grew_ , her coils exploding outwards in countless loops of twisting silver scales and her horns branching out like trees to scrape the roof. Kurogane grabbed his mother’s dagger and choked for breath as something hooked beneath his breastbone and tugged in a brutal yank, pain crashing through his bones as his dragon reared back and back and _back_ , bigger than he’d ever seen her, bigger than the daemon that struggled in her grip. Her teeth were swords, glinting sharp and deadly as her massive jaws slammed shut around what could have been an eldritch face, tearing out a steaming chunk in a rush of filth and ichor as the creature wrapped in her coils squealed helplessly.

“Holy _fuck_ ,” said Fai weakly, somewhere behind him, and yeah, Kurogane could agree with that sentiment.

Ginryuu opened her mouth, serrated jaws dripping with black blood and steaming with magic that swirled like smoke through the mass of her mane, and when she roared the building shook, time slowing in its echo. Kurogane felt his ears pop in the same moment the carpet of crawling sprites beneath his feet crumbled into so much grit, blowing away in the rising wind twisting through the room in silvery gusts and eddies. Where that wind blew, the air tasted clean, and Kurogane gulped it down like a drowning man would each greedy breath. Something wet and salty touched the top of his lip, dripping down from his nose; blood, coming away hot and red on his fingertips, and he smeared it away on his forearm, still staring in shock at the god his dragon had become.

 _Ginryuu is our family guardian_ , his mother had said, so long ago, _tied to the blood of our family line. She has been with you since before you were born, with me since before I was even a spark in my mother’s eye. In all the years that the Suwano Shrine has stood, she has never failed to keep us safe, rising up against whatever has come to threaten us and banishing all harm. If you need her, she will protect you; this is the pact we have sworn, this is the pact your blood carries._

The boy Kurogane had been had laughed it off as legend, even as his chest swelled with pride at knowing his family was so special. Ginryuu ate batteries and chased birds; Ginryuu slept in the sun and stole blankets when she curled up in your bed at night. Ginryuu didn’t fight daemons and drive them down beneath her coils like prey before the raging beast– but here they were, and here _she_ was, glorious and terrible and triumphant, shaking the dying daemon between her teeth like a tiger with a ragdoll.

The cloying atmosphere that had choked the basement disappeared like a soap bubble bursting, taking the chill in the air with it, and the ceiling light flicked on with a faint and anticlimactic _pop_ from above. “I thought maybe… some light?” said Fai softly, from somewhere behind him, but Kurogane could pay him no attention when Ginryuu swung her massive head around to face him, the dying tendrils of the daemon dissolving between her teeth. Each of her eyes were bigger than Kurogane’s whole body, her mane an ocean of silky locks and her horns spiralling silver trees– but the rumbling “ _Hrrrmmm?_ ” that purred out from her chest like velvety thunder was the same as it had ever been, just on a far greater scale.

Slowly, and with no small amount of stunned amazement, Kurogane walked forward. His trembling hand touched the very tip of Ginryuu’s snout as she lowered it down, her scales warm and dry beneath his fingertips. “You can’t help but show off, can you,” he murmured, laughter catching in his chest. She batted her eyelashes at him, rumbling with pleasure when he scratched his nails over her scales; she probably couldn’t even feel it, but her eyes rolled closed all the same, mouth lolling open in a sharp-toothed grin. “I guess you really are everything you think you are, huh?”

A warm huff of breath tickled his face, ruffling his hair, and then quite suddenly her massive coils were shrinking, collapsing in on themselves in ways that hurt the eye to follow. Kurogane carefully placed his mother’s dagger on the ground at his feet so he could scrub his eyes with his free hand, Ginryuu’s scales vibrating warm beneath his palm as the massive dragon god before him faded back to the tiny scaly monster he knew and loved, chirring tiredly at him as he crouched down to her level once more.

“You know what? You wanna eat batteries, go for it,” sighed Kurogane, scooping her up without care for the muck that smeared on his shirt as she coiled in his arms. “I’ll buy you as many as you want.” The weight of her head on his shoulder was familiar, the soft flick of her tongue against his cheek a kiss she’d given him a thousand times before, and Kurogane couldn’t help the grin that teased the corner of his mouth as he stood.

“So that happened,” said Fai, sneakers squeaking on the wet concrete as he crossed the floor. “I’ve never seen…” he trailed off, staring at Ginryuu as he drew closer, stopping just outside the edge of the ward sigil carved into the ground beneath their feet. “You have a dragon god. _You are holding a dragon god in your arms right now_. Holy fuck.”

“You keep saying that,” was the only thing Kurogane could think to reply, because yeah, he kinda felt the same. “If it makes you feel better, I had no idea she could do that.” Ginryuu, the dragon god in question, was currently snoozing on Kurogane’s shoulder, her head heavy and the wisps of her mane tickling against the bare skin of his throat where she had tucked her head under Kurogane’s chin. Her horns were small again, the very tips of them brushing against his cheek.

“Well, it sure beats trying to kill a major filth daemon with a pocket knife and a few fireballs.” Fai looked down, scuffing the toe of his battered sneaker against the carved bands of the sigil beneath their feet. “The wards are still out, but they don’t feel… broken, like they did before.”

That was true. Kurogane didn’t feel cold, or empty, or like the walls around him had been torn away to leave him exposed beneath the hungry eyes of the world beyond the veil. Just tired, and kind of sore –his chest ached, a symptom of magical drain that he’d only heard described in dry historical texts or in his mother’s lectures about over-exerting his limited capabilities when casting wards– and a little bit hungry, but not unsafe like he had before. “Yeah. I’ll… I’ll have to call my mother in the morning, and I have a friend whose grandfather is an exorcist. They can refresh the wards, but we should be good for the rest of the night.” He could still feel the last glimmers of Ginryuu’s power, radiating out through the basement and all through the building’s foundations; it would hold them for a few hours, until the wards could be re-sanctified.

“It’s four a.m.,” said Fai wryly. “It’s already morning.” He was smiling though, his mouth crooked and his eyes sparkling. (They really were very, _very_ blue.)

“After breakfast then, smart guy,” snapped Kurogane, not nearly as annoyed as he probably should be. Bit hard to be, when his dragon was purring in his arms, and their enemy was vanquished into rapidly-dissolving puddles of squishy bits at their feet. “I’m not calling my mum and telling her our family pet turned into a dragon god the size of a bus and ate the daemon trying to kill us all on an empty stomach.”

“A shower and a change of clothes would probably be a good idea too,” mused Fai, and this time there was something like laughter in his voice. “Especially considering you’ve got daemon slime all over your _Magical Card Hunter Cherry_ pyjama pants.”

Slowly, Kurogane took a deep breath. He was twenty-four and a grown man; he didn’t blush, even when his new neighbour called attention to his extremely nerdy choice of bed wear. Damn Tomoyo for deciding he needed new pyjamas on his last birthday, and damn his pyjamas for being so damn comfortable! (His ears did burn, though.) “Shut up,” he growled. “Who the hell wears a velvet dressing gown anyway? You look like you escaped from a British Period Drama.”

Fai smiled up at him winsomely. “Whatever you say, Kuro-tan,” he chirped, and Kurogane rolled his eyes. Three hours ago, he’d have smacked blondie for that, but the man _did_ come down into the basement with his hands on fire to help him fight off a daemon and that counted for a lot in his books.

“Whatever. Look, you want breakfast or not?” Fai blinked at him for a moment, startled, and just when Kurogane was starting to wonder whether he should have kept his mouth shut, that smile turned crooked and far more likeable, Fai lifting a hand to brush the messy strands of his hair from his face and smearing ash across his forehead with a careless swipe.

“I’d like that.”

Kurogane huffed, unwilling to acknowledge the smile threatening the corners of his mouth. “Come on, then. If I’m going to drag my tool bag and dagger _and_ a sleeping dragon upstairs, you’re gonna have to give me a hand.” And yeah, it wasn’t like the wards were just gonna fix themselves with a snap of his fingers –they needed to be reconsecrated for a start, and he was probably gonna have to redo every single minor ward sigil in every damn apartment, not to mention strengthening all the foundation barriers– and he was damn tired besides, but when all was said and done, Kurogane had the feeling everything would be just fine.

**Author's Note:**

> Like I said, I totally need to polish this up. When the festivities of Kurogane Week are over, I'm definitely coming back and revisiting this. Still, it was an absolute blast to write. Make sure you come over to the tag 'kuroganeweek' on tumblr!


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